Medical images generated by an imaging modality, such as X-rays, CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scans, and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans, are commonly digitized to facilitate reading by doctors at remote locations. In use, hospitals and other healthcare providers commonly use systems to capture and digitize the medical images. The medical images are typically transmitted from the modality to a remote image server such as a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). This transmission may occur over a network, such as an intranet or the Internet.
Additionally, the hospital may also transmit orders corresponding to the images to an order server, such as a Radiologist Information System (RIS). Orders are used to request a radiologist to interpret, or read, the images and return a diagnostic report. Orders may also contain additional information related to the image or the patient, such as a patient identifier, the procedure type associated with the image, patient demographic information, and a hospital identifier. Thus, orders may be submitted by hospitals and healthcare providers to identify the patient and instruct the radiologist to provide information for a specific medical condition.
Existing processing systems used in radiology practices generally route images and orders to radiologists in a fixed manner. For example, all of the images and orders may be transmitted from the scanning area of a hospital to a set of doctors that work in the radiology department of the same hospital. After receipt of the images and orders, the radiologist may analyze the image and return a diagnostic report. The diagnostic report may be transmitted through the network to the order server (the RIS), which in turn may forward the report to the hospital or other medical facility that originally transmitted the order and images corresponding to the report.
Although many types of PACS and RIS systems are used by healthcare providers, most PACS and RIS systems are not configured to communicate with each other and correlate orders with the actual images. Therefore, full integration of an order into a radiology workflow is not achieved. As an example, Synapse from FUJIFILM Medical Systems of Stamford, Conn. allows doctors to subscribe to a folder on a PACS. When new images arrive in that folder, a doctor receives notification that the images have arrived. The new images may be cached or stored on the doctor's remote system for viewing. However, the radiology order must be manually created, validated, and submitted before the doctor can proceed with his or her analysis of these images.
In connection with the generation and use of radiological images, information for the patient and the radiological procedure may be entered or separately stored in a variety of locations, potentially leading to redundant or inconsistent data. For example, the information may be provided at the imaging modality before the radiology technician conducts the imaging of the patient; the information may be provided within the radiological images (such as in the header of a DICOM-standard image); the information may be provided within the PACS storing the images; the information may be provided in a RIS as a radiology order is manually created; and the information may be provided from the hospital or healthcare provider's medical record system. Enhanced techniques are needed to improve the workflow speed and accuracy of orders and information involved with remote radiological readings.